Demolition of Cal State East Bay landmark ready to proceed on Saturday

By Rebecca Parr The Daily Review

Posted:
08/16/2013 06:04:43 AM PDT

Updated:
08/16/2013 06:06:23 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

The 13-story Warren Hall building at Cal State East Bay seen here in Hayward, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013 is currently being prepared for an upcoming implosion. The building opened in 1971 and has since been determined by the California State University Seismic Review Board to be seismically vulnerable. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

HAYWARD -- Saturday's demolition of Warren Hall on the Cal State East Bay campus has been carefully planned down to the minute, but low clouds or fog could delay things for a short time.

"The implosion will take place as soon after 9 a.m. as safety and weather permit," said Mark Loizeaux, president of Control Demolition International, the company handling the explosives.

If energy from an implosion hits fog, it bounces off and comes back down, affecting where debris lands, he said. So skies must be clear, and that is the forecast for Saturday, he said.

Mark Loizeaux president of Controlled Demolition, Inc briefs the news media on the upcoming implosion of the 13-story Warren Hall at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013. The building opened in 1971 and has since been determined by the California State University Seismic Review Board to be seismically vulnerable. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Scientists are taking advantage of the demolition to study the Hayward Fault, which runs close to Warren Hall. U.S. Geological Survey scientists and volunteers have been installing 600 seismometers this week in a 1½-mile radius around Warren Hall and in a vertical line from the bay over to the Dublin area, which will be used to measure the implosion that will mimic a small earthquake.

One of the seismographs will be at Lee Baker's home in the Fairview neighborhood of unincorporated Hayward.

"One of the geologists came to my house and asked if it was OK to place one here," Baker said. "I said, 'Of course.' I'd like to see how much shaking is up here."

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Baker was so interested in the project that he volunteered to help place the seismic sensors, which are a little larger than a soda can.

"This is the most exciting thing that has happened in Hayward since the Haywards Hotel burned in 1923," he said.

Warren Hall has been declared the most seismically unsafe structure in the California State University system. The university considered retrofitting the 13-story building but found that demolishing it was less expensive. It will be replaced with a more energy-efficient structure across campus.

When the demolition begins Saturday, people in the area will hear 13 reports, or loud explosions, that will go off at 6½-second intervals to ignite the charges, Loizeaux said. A second sequence of reports will be the actual demolition.

The charges are set so that the building will tilt as it comes down, falling away from other nearby structures, some of which are only 50 feet away.

Warren Hall Implosion
View the building demolition at 9 a.m. Saturday from the Kmart parking lot at Harder Road and Mission Boulevard in Hayward.
The Cal State East Bay campus will be closed beginning Friday night until Monday morning.
The implosion can also be viewed soon after it occurs at www.insidebayarea.com.